Ooh, a New Years Eve baby? That must at least mean you always have a party to go to on your birthday (yay) but also that it's never really all about you (boo). I hope you enjoy it, anyway!

Today, I'm on campus until mid-afternoon, last time on campus until the New Year so I have lots of admin type jobs and stuff to print so I can work on other bits over the holidays. And a meeting about writing a journal paper at lunchtime. Hopefully I'll also have time for some data analysis too.

Lindalou83 - sounds like you have a good plan already! Have a lovely birthday!

Sounds like everyone is starting to 'pack up' for Xmas already. I have so much to do still! Well, I 'just' need to finish one of my papers and I'm not even halfway through. Better crack on then.

Thank you, and yes the new year's baby thing is a double edged sword, there are always parties but they're never for me, *sob* No only joking, to be honest as I've gotten older I don't really like going out on my birthday as it's so expensive to go anywhere, get in, have a drink/food, then get a taxi home! So a nice quiet one this year as I'm unfortunately one year closer to the big 3-0...! Anyway good luck today everyone, I really must do some work! :-)

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I'm going to start this one off again as today is my last working day before I pack up my things and leave the office tonight! I've had a curve ball thrown at me and I have a load of prep to do before my review panel in January as well as finish amending my chapter! So today I have the following goals:

1. Finish amending methodology
2. Update progress plan
3. Review aims and objectives (AGAIN!)

and finally, on a more Christmassy note:

4. Ice the Christmas cake my fiance and I made in November and have been feeding weekly with cherry brandy ever since.. yum!

If there's anyone out there, hope your work is progressing well and you're having a lovely festive season so far! (snowman)

Goal 1, done (hence why I am back online...!)

Now for some breakfast (is that the time?!) and goals 2 and 3, which shouldn't take too long. Then I am going to stop for today as I had a 12 hour session yesterday and I've been working since 8.30 this morning. Amazing what you can achieve when you get stuck in!

Good morning all and Happy 2012!

I've just had two weeks off - stopped PhDing on about 16 December, so ready to be back at it today. I hope you all had a good rest and got all you wanted for Christmas. I had a mixed bag of it... lovely lunch followed by family dramatics then visits to friends on Christmas day; then lots of telly and loads of cousins and aunty and uncle for a lovely day of it at my place; then more telly and chocolate - thoroughly enjoyeed the Morcambe and Wise fest; then a nice New Year's even with dinner and fireworks at my friend's place. So, from hence forth it's PhD and Zumba all the way... for a couple of weeks anyway...

Today I'm going to write a section I researched for just before Christmas. So I'll need to review where I'm up to, type up my notes and write the section - no word count, it will be as long as it needs to be. See you later x

Hope it's going well Eska, and Happy New Year to everyone!

I took a couple of weeks off as well - haven't looked at the PhD since 16 December. I visited my family for 3 days just before Christmas, and then had 5 days with my partner's family over Christmas - too long to be away really, but it was his parents' 50th wedding anniversary so we couldn't escape earlier. So then I needed a few days to myself/just with partner to recover from all that family stuff! Now I need to get back into the work, but it's hard to get motivated again. I spent this morning doing jobs around the flat but now I can't put the work off any longer!

Today, my goal is to get my head back into where I am with my data analysis. So I think I'll write up various notes from bits I've previously done and see if that gets me back into the right way of thinking. I also have a book I need to read before I go on a statstics training course on 15 Jan, so I'll probably read a bit of that too.

Hi all!

I haven't been on this thread for a long time (was busy doing my interviews before Christmas and then had two weeks off), but I really need to get back into it now. Not looking forward to getting back into work mode!

Today my goals are;

1- review where I'm up to
2- carry on with analysis

Hope everyone is successful with their goals today!

Hi Button, good to see you again. Hope you get back into the work okay today, it was painful for me yesterday!

Today, I need to build up a head of steam and make some real progress. I started the day with an hour of reading and note-taking on the statistics book I need to read by Jan 15th - it's slow and painful, as it's an area I haven't studied before, but I think chunks of an hour at a time will get me through it. But the main tasks I need to work on are a draft chapter and writing up some initial data analysis that I need to send to my supervisors by next Tuesday. It's looking scarily soon all of a sudden!

Goals for today:
1.) Read and make notes on one chapter from statistics book - DONE
2.) Create a detailed plan for draft chapter
3.) Cut and paste previously written stuff into draft chapter and see where this leaves me
4.) Create a rough plan for writing up initial data analysis/analysis still needed
Hmm, maybe that's a bit ambitious for one day. But if I can achieve the first 3 I'll be happy!

Hi Batfink and Button - I hope the return to work is going well for you both. I did a bit yesterday - about 2 hours of writing, and then out with a friend in the afternoon. And have yet to get cracking again today... must get into a proper routine again.

I hoped to get this chapter re-drafted by Christmas but didn't get anywhere near that, so my time of reckoning is getting closer - I must have something respectable to tell my supervisor by the end of this next weekend. See you later XX

Hi Eska/Batfink,

I'm doing okay today surprisingly, plodding on with my analysis now I know what needs doing.

But I'm now off to have a late lunch (my stomach is having a major rumble), then I need to take crazy puppy for a walk to try and tire her out, before hopefully getting another hour or so of work done later.

Today, I need to make some really good progress on the paper I have to send to my supervisors next week. I've done a couple of tomatoes already this morning (then had to take a break to pop to the bank and supermarket). I'd like to finish the section I've started and complete at least one more section by the end of the day, and will use the tomatoes method to stick with it. So, back to it I go!

Good luck today everyone else!

Hello all and happy new year, hope you all had a good Christmas! I decided to take some time off over Christmas after all as this year is going to be stressful enough so I thought I should have a break whilst I have the chance!

Today I have already sent all my documents to the registry for my PRP at the end of the month, now I am going to crack on with writing up my analysis. I have changed my plan after having a long think about it over the break, I was planning to write my theoretical framework first but I now think it will help me to get my work in order if I write the analysis first! So I would like to get at least 500 words done today, if possible.

Good luck today peeps! (up)

Happy new year, Lindalou, and good luck with the work!

I've finished my first section of writing - turned out to be a lot shorter than I was expecting - and am now working on my second. If I can finish this and make a start on a third section today I'll be very happy.